Chapter 371: A Fortuitous Chance Across the Truth Layer

After entering the truth layer, Qi Suian casually crushed several survivors who were trying to stay alive, then violently extracted the D-rank Yang energy from their bodies.

They were all rookies. Qi Suian suspected the last Ghost City incident had wiped out a whole generation of survivors.

But it didn’t matter. Their low levels weren’t an issue; after all, Qi Suian was only using them as test subjects.

High or low level was irrelevant. What mattered was the quantity.

"The Ghost City was an anomaly caused by the Longevity Dew. This current, scattered state is how things are supposed to be."

Qi Suian stopped paying attention to the situation in the truth layer. With the Ghost Control Technique in his possession, he could traverse the truth layer by taking only a minor risk.

And since he possessed a protagonist halo and the reluctant protection of the World Will, the risk was practically nonexistent.

If he actually ran into trouble, it would mean the World Will was screwing him over, and it wouldn’t be his own fault.

If that were the case, it would be useless for Qi Suian to resist, no matter how hard he tried.

As for taking his life into his own hands? ’I’m a fish on the chopping block, at the mercy of others.’ How could it be that easy?

How could a mere ant like him be a match for the World Will?

"So, where’s the action? Why hasn’t anything started? The doomsday game already pulled me from the Celestial Capital into this truth layer."

Qi Suian had expected all hell to break loose the moment he arrived, but it turned out nothing happened at all.

Why else would he have killed all the survivors right away? He was afraid of being affected by whatever was coming, so he struck first.

But his question received no answer.

Clearly, the World Will wasn’t paying attention to this place.

"I’ll just have to wait for the Royal Shadow Guards from the Celestial Capital to arrive," Qi Suian muttered.

He considered escaping to other regions and starting a massacre of survivors, but he needed to find some pawns to use as cannon fodder first.

What would be the point of rushing in recklessly by himself when there was a force he could exploit?

[Please check the map. The Treasure Map of the Lost has located a protagonist-level opportunity for you.]

The AI brain suddenly projected a map for Qi Suian.

Qi Suian took a closer look. "What the hell is this? This must have come from the World Will."

He guessed as much because the red dot wasn’t in the visible area of the map, but deep within the fog of war.

This meant the opportunity wasn’t in his current region of the truth layer; he would have to travel to another one to get it.

"Then I’ll definitely have to bring people over to gang up on him," Qi Suian said.

But in the next moment, the red dot abruptly vanished.

"HOLY SHIT!!!" Qi Suian was gutted. ’Is that survivor protagonist really that fast? How did he get his hands on it so quickly?’

[Regrettably, we have lost this opportunity. However, we can still go and kill this survivor...]

Before the AI brain could even finish, the red dot reappeared.

"What’s going on? Why is it back?"

’Surely another protagonist-level opportunity couldn’t have appeared in the same spot,’ Qi Suian thought, completely baffled.

These things were incredibly rare; it wasn’t possible for another to appear so easily.

Then, in the time it took him to say that, the red dot vanished from the map again.

This time, he was much calmer and not so stung by the loss. After silently counting to three, the red dot appeared once again.

"The duration it stays lit is irregular, but the time between it disappearing and reappearing seems to be fixed at three seconds," Qi Suian concluded after observing the red dot’s cycle several times.

"So what exactly is going on?"

Qi Suian couldn’t quite figure it out. ’It can’t be getting destroyed and repaired over and over again, can it?’

The possibility existed, but Qi Suian felt it was highly unlikely.

This bizarre situation made Qi Suian a little hesitant to go after the opportunity.

Given the circumstances, claiming it wasn’t dangerous would be just lying to himself.

He could lie to his buddies, but he wouldn’t lie to himself. He hadn’t been blinded by greed yet.

"I’ll let the Royal Shadow Guards go in first to test the waters. If they manage to get it, I’ll just kill them and take the opportunity for myself."

"If they don’t come back, I’ll just find a chance to get the hell out of here."

Qi Suian’s plan was simple and straightforward: he just wanted to offload the risk.

It was a good idea, but he knew in his heart that the latter outcome was more likely.

As someone who possessed one, he knew exactly how a protagonist halo worked.

The Royal Shadow Guards wouldn’t stand a chance of success, even against a complete newbie with a halo.

To succeed, someone who also had a protagonist halo—namely, Qi Suian himself—would have to go in person.

Otherwise, there was no hope of intercepting the prize.

You couldn’t snatch a protagonist’s opportunity unless you were another protagonist or a powerhouse with an overwhelming advantage in strength.

It wasn’t as simple as a normal person being able to do whatever a protagonist could.

It was like if someone else wanted to snatch one of Qi Suian’s opportunities; they would have to be a protagonist themselves and also have a home-field advantage.

Otherwise, even if they knew about it, they wouldn’t be able to get it. They might even end up becoming a Treasure-Bringing Child.

In the end, they would deliver everything, lock, stock, and barrel, to Qi Suian, becoming his opportunity instead.

In a way, the protagonist halo truly made one superior. Otherwise, back when Qi Suian had fled, the Blood Moon wouldn’t have just attacked him, it would never have let him get away with cursing it out.

After about five minutes, slight ripples began to appear in the fabric of the truth layer region where Qi Suian was waiting.

"Royal Shadow Guard, Jiachen Seventy-Second Squad. We greet you, Your Excellency."

"By order of His Majesty the Emperor, you are to assume command for the duration of Operation Eternal Purgatory."

Seventy-two Royal Shadow Guards stepped out from the ripples. The one in the lead spoke in a stiff, mechanical voice.

Qi Suian didn’t care about their attitude. Royal Shadow Guards were always like this—cold, stiff, and robotic—unless they were subjected to extreme stimulus, like when Qi Suian had stolen the Longevity Dew, which had caused a major emotional fluctuation.

"Just the seventy-two of you? No one else is coming?" Qi Suian asked, wanting to be cautious. He didn’t want to leave only to have another group show up right behind him.

Who knew how many teams Emperor Zhiyue had dispatched?

"All units have arrived," the lead Royal Shadow Guard stated.

Once he had his confirmation, Qi Suian said, "Follow me. We’re going to take care of someone."

’Since they’re here, I might as well use them to their fullest potential,’ Qi Suian thought. ’It would be a waste not to make the most of this cannon fodder.’

’As for their supposed mission to capture survivors?’

Qi Suian wasn’t an idiot. These seventy-two were just the ones Emperor Zhiyue had assigned to him. The Royal Shadow Guards actually tasked with capturing survivors had probably entered the field long ago.

If they could find him, how could they possibly fail to find the survivors? The World Will definitely had a hand in it.

So there was no need to worry about capturing survivors. He should focus on the red dot of opportunity on the Treasure Map of the Lost.

Having said that, Qi Suian took out a live-organism observation device. Combining its use with his knowledge of the Ghost Control Technique, he tore open a long, narrow passage and strode confidently inside.

The live-organism observation device was something he’d created during the last Ghost City incident, but unfortunately, he never got the chance to use it.

By the time he finished his negotiations with the World Will, the event was already ending, and the Ghost City collapsed before he could put the device to use.

As a result, Qi Suian still had a batch of unused live-organism observation devices on hand.

The seventy-two Royal Shadow Guards didn’t reply, simply following Qi Suian silently into the passage.

They didn’t think about why, nor did they voice any questions.

As Royal Shadow Guards, their minds had been warped to the point that they only knew how to obey commands.

For them, it was as if their ownership had been transferred; they would do whatever Qi Suian commanded.

They wouldn’t ask if an order was reasonable, or why it was given.

Emperor Zhiyue could put a nice spin on it, but in reality, the Royal Shadow Guards were just a squad of death-sworn soldiers, not an elite unit like the Imperial Guard, composed of individuals with their own free will.

If they could truly think for themselves, how could they exhibit such polar opposite behaviors?

It just goes to show that everything has two sides. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Even Qi Suian couldn’t make such a claim. For example, he had gained immense power but lost his humanity—though one could argue that abandoning his humanity was how he’d grown stronger.

After all, the limits of his former self, the Abyssal Human, were clear. Without changing his very nature, there would have been no path to survival.

’This is a huge pain in the ass,’ Qi Suian thought, watching the red dot blink in and out of existence. As they drew closer, he noticed the dot was staying visible for longer and longer periods.

That, in his opinion, was not a good sign.

There was definitely something fishy going on. Unfortunately, the distance and the separation between regions made it hard to tell for sure, but he suspected it might be some kind of resurrection ability.

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"The difficulty is too high. Even with my special S-rank talent, I’ve already died so many times."

Su Huayun’s face was grim. He had gone from being instantly killed the moment he arrived to painstakingly figuring out a number of the "killing rules" of this place, dying dozens of times in the process.

He had to thank the death-rewind effect of his Deceiver talent. Each time he died, he would return to the very first time-point, which was the only reason he was still alive.

His other abilities included "Deceive the Gods," which made his lies undetectable even to deities, and "Truth from Fiction," which could turn his lies into reality once enough people believed them. Of course, there were limitations; the more far-reaching the lie, the more believers it required.

For example, even if every single person on his planet believed his claim of being an omnipotent god, it still wouldn’t become true.

"Fate Reversal" was straightforward: it could instantly turn his disadvantages and bad luck into advantages and good fortune.

And "Situational Control" gave him the powerful ability to perceive both grand and subtle shifts in the current state of affairs, which he used in tandem with Fate Reversal and Deceive the Gods to construct his elaborate lies.

And yet, even with such a ridiculously overpowered talent, he still had to die dozens of times just to begin figuring out the killing rules here.

"The ghost I’m up against... what in the world is it? How can it be so unpredictable?"

"It couldn’t possibly be a Deceitful Ghost, just like me, could it?" A sharp glint flashed in Su Huayun’s eyes.

Otherwise, there was no explaining how his opponent was able to counter his every move.

"Contain a ghost, command a ghost..."

"My Deceiver talent, combined with a Deceitful Ghost... maybe that’s what I need to truly beat this so-called doomsday game."

Su Huayun stared at the strange Ghost Control Technique in his hands. It was a document he had found in the ancestral hall right at the start, but its contents were nothing more than speculation and theory.

A normal person would never dare to use it; one careless mistake would mean death. But Su Huayun, with his ability to rewind upon death, had no fear of dying. He could afford to learn through trial and error.